Emphasis is on music for this week’s priority list, including a Cynthia Layne celebration

The emphasis is on music for my Feb. 24-March 1 A&E priority list.

Cynthia Layne Memorial Concert

Talented friends gather to pay tribute to one of Indianapolis’ leading jazz vocalists, who died earlier this year. Featured performers include Brenda Williams, Greg Bacon, Jimmy Guilford, Keith Hayes, Jan Aldridge-Clark, and more.

Feb. 27  Indiana Landmarks Center Details 

“Raisin’ Cane: A Harlem Renaissance Odyssey”

Actress Jasmine Guy and the Avery Sharpe Trio lead an evening of dramatic readings, spirituals, original music, photographic projections, videos, and more. Anchored in the work of Nathan Pinchback Toomer, whose book of short stories and poems, “Caine,” was a key work of the Harlem Renaissance, it includes work by Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Eubie Blake and Duke Ellington.

Feb. 27 Clowes Hall  Details

IU Opera’s “South Pacific”

The chance of seeing a Golden Age musical here in Indy with a substantial orchestra in the pit is slim. So what’s a little drive time when, at the end of the road, there’s a full-bodied playing of a Rodgers and Hammerstein classic? The musical gets an all-new production directed by Vincent Liotta, who has performed similar services for Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and more.

Feb. 27-March 7 Musical Arts Center, Bloomington Details

National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico

Usually found playing in the Grand Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, this ensemble comes to the Center for the Performing Arts with a program including music by Brahms as well as Spanish-rooted composers Joaquin Turina and Joaquin Rodrigo.

Feb. 26 Palladium Details 

Also this week

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs music by Gershwin, Copland and Bernstein Feb. 27-28 at Hilbert Circle Theatre.

The W.C. Fields film “You’re Telling Me” is screened at Garfield Park Arts Center Feb. 28.

Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre opens its production of “The Cat in the Hat,” which runs Feb. 24-28.

Broadway in Indianapolis brings the national tour of“Annie,” directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin, to the Murat Feb. 24-March 1.

The Indianapolis Museum of Art closes out its Winter Nights film series with “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” Feb. 27 complete with make-your-own chalice/shield/wooden rabbit workshop.